Message and card receiver



(No Model.)

J..T. STONE. MESSAGE'AND CARD REOEIVER.

N 535,635. Patented Mar; '12, 1895 mr mums we'rzks co, PNDTO-UTHD" WASHWGTON. 0, c

' WE STATES JOHN STONE, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

MESSAGE AND CARD RECEIVER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters.Patent No. 535,635, dated March 12, 1895.

Application filed November 211894- Serial No. 527,725. (No model.)

V zen of the United States, residing in Oakland,

Alameda county, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Message and Card Receivers; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to a device for holding independent cards so that a message may be left upon a card, and a means for transferring the card from the holder and delivering it into a closed receptacle; and it consists in certain details of construction which will be more fully explained by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of my message and card receiver. nal section of the same.

The object of my invention is to provide a convenient .device which will enable a visitor to leave a card or message for the person visited, and to transfer said card, after writing upon it, to a closed receptacle, leaving a blank card in its place for the next visitor.

This device may be adapted to be used upon a desk or as an attachment to be placed upon an outside door, or at other convenient points with relation to the office or room of the person visited.

Fig. 2 is a longitudi- It may be used either alone or in conjunction with the well known devices for indicating the hour at which the occupant of the room will return.

It consists of a box or caseA of such a size as to receive suitable cards. This box is provided with a spring-actuated plate or follower B upon which the cards are placed, being introduced through a slot 0 of the box, while the plate is depressed. After a sufficient number of cards have been introduced, the plate or follower being released, will be forced up by the springs, thus holding the cards against the open face of the case through which the face of the uppermost card will be exposed. Across the case, just below the lower edge of the opening through which the cards are exposed, is a shaft D journaled in suitable supports and having at one end a knob or means E by which it can be rotated.

F F are toothed pinions or other frictional disks fixed to the shaft and projecting through slots or openings in the case, so that their points will engage the first of the series of cards contained within the receptacle.

The two sides G G of the box which correspond with the longer sides of the cards, are

made to stand at'an inclination as shown in the sectional view so that when the cards are introduced and the spring plate allowed to force them against the opening in the case,

the cards will be so moved by reason of the inclined sides, that one of the edges will be advanced so as to stand beneath the pinions or disks and be engaged thereby.

. In the case which contains the cards, is a closed receptacle H having a door of any suitable description which may be opened at any time by the occupant of the room. A narrow slot I is made between the case containing the cards and this receptacle, this slot being in line with the edge of the exposed cards in the case, so that whenever this card is advanced and moved out of the containing case, it will be delivered into the receptacle I-I. Whenever a visitor wishes to leave a message, it can be written upon the exposed card in the case. Then by turning the knob and shaft, the pinions or disks engaging the surface of the card, will advance it through the slot I between the two chambers and de liver it into the closed receptacle, so that the message which has been written will not be open to the inspection of any other visitor, a fresh blank card being left so that any subsequent visitor can, in like manner, leave a message.

The case may have imprinted upon it instructions to leave a message, and to turn the knob, or any other matter which may be desired.

It will be manifest that any form of device may be employed which has sufficient frictional force to move the cards, but I have found the mechanism here described to be very efficieut for the purpose.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A case having an opening through which the cards are exposed, and having a movable spring-actuated follower, a slot or openingby which cards may be introduced when the latter is depressed, so as to be forced against the rim of the opening when the follower is released',a second closed chamber in line adjoining the first having a slot between the two corresponding with the position of the exposed card and a mechanism whereby said card may be advanced from the containing case through the slot into the second receptacle.

2. A-message and card receiver consisting of a case to contain cards, having an opening through which the cards are successively exposed, 'a spring-actuated follower within the case for feeding the cards into position against the rim of the opening in the case, a receptacle or chamber within said case and communicating with the card holding chamber by means of a slotted partition between the two chambers, through which the cards are delivered from the holder to the receiver, and a means for delivering the cards from the holder to the receiving receptacle consisting of a turnable shaft jo'urnaled across the exterior of the case having disks projecting through slots in the case to engage the surface of the exposed card and advance it edgewise into the receiving chamber.

3. A message and card receiver comprising a case having internal inclined partitions for feeding the cards diagonally one of said partitions having a slot connecting with an adjacent closed card-receiving chamber, a springactuated follower between the partitions for JOHN T. STONE.

Witnesses:

S. H. NOURSE, H. F. ASOHECK. 

